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/kˈərvətʃər/ Listen

noun

Curvature n.

The act of curving, or the state of being bent or curved; a curving or bending, normal or abnormal, as of a line or surface from a rectilinear direction; a bend; a curve. "The elegant curvature of their fronds."

(Math.) The amount of degree of bending of a mathematical curve, or the tendency at any point to depart from a tangent drawn to the curve at that point.

Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a circular form.

Absolute curvature. See under Absolute.

Angle of curvature (Geom.), one that expresses the amount of curvature of a curve.

Chord of curvature. See under Chord.

Circle of curvature. See Osculating circle of a curve, under Circle.

Curvature of the spine (Med.), an abnormal curving of the spine, especially in a lateral direction.

Radius of curvature, the radius of the circle of curvature, or osculatory circle, at any point of a curve.

See images of 'Curvature'

Etymology of 'Curvature'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Curvature" Quotes from Famous Books

... elbows ... Dreadfully bony! And my face has become..." She turns her face towards him. He sees tears trembling on the lower lashes of her grey eyes, but something has come into the features, some irradiation of love—is it the light of the sunset?—which imparts a tender youthfulness to the curvature of cheek, lips and chin. Her face, indeed, might be of any age: it held the undying beauty of a goddess, in whom knowledge has sweetened to tenderness and divinity has dissolved in a need for compassion; and the youthful assurance ...

— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... stout, laterally compressed, and dorsally convex on both upper and lower margins. At the back of the orbit of Thrinaxodon, the postorbital process of the jugal extends posterodorsally. At this position in Didelphis, there is but a minor upward curvature of the margin of ...

— The Adductor Muscles of the Jaw In Some Primitive Reptiles • Richard C. Fox

... enabled him to adduce another argument, which, though not quite so obvious as that just mentioned, demonstrates the curvature of the earth in a very impressive manner to anyone who will take the trouble to understand it. Ptolemy mentions that travellers who went to the south reported, that, as they did so, the appearance of the heavens at night ...

— Great Astronomers • R. S. Ball

... there been no curve. The columns of the Parthenon have shafts that are over 34 ft. high, and diminish from a diameter of 6.15 ft. at the bottom to 4.81 ft. at the top. The outline between these points is convex, but so slightly so that the curve departs at the point of greatest curvature not more than 3/4 in. from the straight line joining the top and bottom. This is, however, just sufficient to correct the tendency to look hollow in ...

— Architecture - Classic and Early Christian • Thomas Roger Smith

... the roughest kind. The trees when found of a suitable size are cut down, stripped of their bark, and sawn into convenient lengths; the sides are not squared, but left just as they grew. No artificial means are resorted to for any bends; a tree or branch of a tree is found with the requisite natural curvature. There is not in the building, rigging, or fitting-up of a Chinese junk one single thing which is similar to what we see on board a European vessel. Everything is different; the mode of construction; the absence of keel, bowsprit, and ...

— Under the Dragon Flag - My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War • James Allan

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